On the left, we have North Surrey secondary in the black, red and white. On the right, rivals Charles Best secondary of Coquitlam, in the navy blue and silver.

Both teams ran through their routines in the warm-up room at the Vancouver Convention Centre Friday night, each counting out their dance moves, practising their lifts and hoping for supremacy in the coed high school division of the International Cheer Alliance’s Sea to Sky Cheerleading and Dance Championships, on until Sunday.

“In the last competition I think we were separated by 0.7 or 0.07 (of a point),” said North Surrey team member Sam Kirk, recalling the last time his team faced off against Charles Best.

While Best eked out the higher score on a technicality and generally wins points for tumbling — flips, handsprings, etc. — Kirk said if his team hits all their major stunts, the lifts and tosses, he’s confident they could win.

It would be a particularly nice way to finish the year for a team that will lose about one-third of its members when they graduate at the end of this school year, he said.

For teammate Joey Murphy, his impending graduation made the stakes feel that much higher.

“We have a lot to lose,” he said. “We want to hit it tonight.”

With eight male members, North Surrey is a rare specimen in the cheerleading world, where the gender ratio tends to veer much more heavily toward the female side.

But the boys on the team, many of whom also play for the school’s rugby team, say cheer is changing. An emphasis on competition, athleticism and gymnastics skills make it more acceptable for boys to join the squad.

And then there’s another incentive. Ask any of them why they got involved in the first place, and most will give you a typical high-schooler’s answer.

“I joined in Grade 9, because a bunch of girls asked me,” said Murphy.

“We all did,” echoed teammate Kyle Fix.

“I was bribed with a cupcake,” maintained Roop Sidhu, another soon-to-be graduate who quit rugby after falling in love with cheer.

“I love pretty much all the aspects of it,” said Sidhu. “I love the stunting, the tumbling and the dance.”

No matter the outcome of this weekend’s competition, Sidhu’s cheer career will continue as a member of the Vancouver All-Stars Cheer Team, a competitive semi-professional enterprise also competing in this weekend’s competition.

But he’ll miss the camaraderie of his North Surrey team, he said.

Over on the Charles Best side, there is no bad blood toward their competitors from Surrey, as the teams have become friends over the years by sharing buses to international competitions.

“Our tumbling is stronger but their cheering is stronger,” said Taylor Morrison, 15, a Grade 10 student at Charles Best.

Like North Surrey, her team seemed more concerned with sticking all the stunts in their routine than beating the competition. But they wouldn’t mind the title — or the team sweaters that come with winning first place, said Janine Mereniuk, a Grade 12 student who is also on the all-star cheer team.

She said this weekend’s competition will be bittersweet for near-graduates like her, who’ve acted as mentors for their younger counterparts. For that reason everyone was hoping for a clean performance they could feel proud of.

When it came time for the teams to show their stuff to the judges, Best performed first with a clean performance and no discernible flaws. A portion of their score would carry over to Saturday’s competition, when the teams will have a second chance to hit their routines. North Surrey will likely need the second chance. They gave a strong performance but had a couple of stunts go awry and a few missed moves throughout.

Still, they beamed like the best of them, throwing smiles out into the audience — with the Charles Best members crowded at the foot of the stage — their biggest competition and also their biggest support.

The Sea to Sky Cheerleading and Dance Championships run through to Sunday, with more than 90 teams from B.C., Alberta, Washington and Oregon in attendance.

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